Dmitry Kulikov, the first Deputy Chairman of the Government in Ivanovo region has been charged again – this time, of accepting a bribe in the form of a foreign car and cellphone.

Ivanovo Investigators charged the first Deputy Chairman of the Government with Bribe-Taking on an especially large scale (part 5 of Art. 290 of the Criminal Code), the Kommersant
reported.

The charges are associated with the largest regional investment project of launching the Ivregionsintez (Ivanovo region synthesis) cluster textile corporation. The project is estimated at 17.7 billion rubles and aims to produce synthetic fibers for the textile industry. According to the investigation, Kulikov was given a Volkswagen SUV and cellphone for Ivregionsintez lobbying. The bribery is worth 245.9 thousand rubles.

According to the Investigative Committee of Russia, the official supported the project at the request of one of his friends who had previously participated in it, having moved afterwards to a local company named Megapolis. According to the case file, the vice-president in charge of the financial unit in the regional government, in order to launch the project sooner, was involved in "solving problems, meetings of regional authorities" and other construction-related matthers, he "drafted letters and negotiated with bank representatives, public officials from Ministry of Economy and Finance", and so on. For these services Megapolis let Kulikov rent a foreign car and cellphone. However, the official was using them free of charge. The cost is estimated to have reached 245.9 thousand rubles.

Daria Konstantinova, Kulikov's lawyer, insists that by supporting the project her client was only performing his duties.

In fact, Dmitry Kulikov has already been charged with bribe-taking and is now under house arrest. The official was arrested in May 2016. According to investigation, in 2014 he got 5 million rubles from Vyacheslav Sverchkov, the Ivanovo ex-Mayor, to resolve the matters of land turnover in the city. Sverchkov then was detained by FSB officers in the act of recieving 12 million rubles from Sarraf Mammedov, the local merchant. He is believed to have been given the money for allocation of land for commercial pavilions. A few weeks after the arrest, the ex-mayor made a confession where among other things he said that Dmitry Kulikov was to get a part of the bribe.

Aug. 31 in Oktyabrsky District Court of Ivanovo Judge Ilya Vjugin extended the pre-trial restrictions for Kulikov and decided that he would stay under house arrest until November, 4 - before the end of the investigation.

Kulikov became the seventh official in the past two years to have been detained on suspicion of corruption. There are talks in the region that the Governor's team is being purged.